information systems technology enhancement project · pdf file · 2011-10-28case...

Chapter 2

AApprriill 11999999

Prepared for Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program/Policy Support and Evaluation Division 1100 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20530

Project Director Terence Dunworth, Ph.D.

Prepared by Vince Webb, Ph.D. Tempe Site Leader Scott Decker, Ph.D. Shawn Ward

Abt Associates Inc. 55 Wheeler Street Cambridge, MA

Case Study: Tempe, Arizona

Police Department Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project

IISSTTEEPP

02138

Contents Tempe Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

1 Purpose and Scope of Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

2 Police Department Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262.3 Extent of Departmental Efforts in Community Policing . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Solicitation of Citizen Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27Geographic Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28Emphasis on Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28Problem-Solving Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28Adoption of Community-Oriented Policing Management Styles . . . . . .29

2.4 Community-Oriented Policing Training and Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . .29

3 Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .303.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .303.2 State of Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .303.3 Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing . . . . . . . . . .31

Operations/Command and Control Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31Management Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

3.4 Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing . . . . . .32Geographic Information Systems (GIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32Problem-Solving Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

3.5 Relationships and Experience with Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .333.6 Future Acquisition and Development Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .333.7 IT Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

4 Analysis Methods Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .344.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Crime Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34Operations Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35Intelligence Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

4.2 Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35Community Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

5 Use of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365.1 Community Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365.2 Inter-Organizational Linkages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .375.3 Work-Group Facilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385.4 Environmental Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385.5 Problem Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385.6 Area Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .395.7 Strategic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .395.8 Other Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Use by Officers, Detectives, Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40Use by Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406.1 Overall Assessment of Information Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406.2 Tempe Police Department’s Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

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Case Study – Chapter 2: Tempe, Arizona

Tempe Highlights

Community policing is in the operational fabric of the Tempe Police Department. Since the department adopted the philosophy in 1988, Tempe residents have come to expect innovative action and proactive policies from their police force. Officers working specific beats must develop problem-solving goals with their supervisors. To sup-port this strategy, officers are assigned to beats for a minimum of one year. The department also created a Problem Solving Process manual which includes a format for problem-solvers to track their efforts and time spent on projects.

The city of Tempe reorganized its information systems in 1998 by eliminating autonomous technology units within city divisions. A centralized Information Technology Division (ITD) was formed to develop a more integrated effort. The city assigned an ITD business analyst to the police department to serve as a liaison and an advocate for the department. An important advantage of ITD is the city’s ability to purchase hardware and software in larger quantities and at a lower cost than individual divisions would be able to do. This reorganization has also helped the police department to be more successful in planning information technology acquisitions to sup-port community policing.

The Tempe Police Department has established a Workload Committee to analyze operational and administrative data for resource allocation planning. The department is using a software program – Staff Wizard – to help analyze these data to develop beat officer staffing schedules. This software has been a great tool for not only the Workload Committee, but for general operations analysis.

Much of the responsibility for using internal police information systems to support community policing rests with the Crime Analysis Unit. Arguably one of the most accomplished crime analysis units in the country, the staff perform three types of analysis – tactical, strategic, and administrative. This unit provides police information to citizens of Tempe either via the Tempe Police web site or by individual request. The major products produced by the Crime Analysis Unit are monthly reports on police activity and crime, an ongoing series of tactical crime trend reports, and monthly and annual reports on crime and calls-for-service by specified land uses. The unit also conducts an annual citizen survey and prepares a report summarizing the survey findings.

The department’s web site is maintained by the Crime Analysis Unit as well. The site is elaborate and contains several categories of information from crime prevention tips to a sex offender database. The Tempe Crime Analysis Unit is most importantly a key component in forging a community interface with residents.

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1 Purpose and Scope of Report


1 Purpose and Scope of Report

This case study is one of several produced for the Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project (ISTEP), a project funded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The aim of ISTEP is to increase the use of information and information technology in police departments, particularly regarding the implementation of community policing. The case studies document the current state of information technology and the use of information in five police departments: Tempe, Arizona; San Diego, California; Hartford, Connecticut; Reno, Nevada; and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina. These case studies are based on a limited review of the status of information technology in the departments. A separate cross-site report synthesizes the findings of the individual case studies. A report on the project’s conceptual framework presents the overall ISTEP approach and discusses how community policing demands different types of information systems, analysis methods, and uses of information than those required under the professional-era model of policing.

The Tempe, Arizona, ISTEP case study is based on two site visits to the Tempe Police Department. The Abt ISTEP team conducted the first site visit on August 16-19, 1998. The focus of this visit was to review technology history, use, and plans for future development and to collect documentation on the department’s use of information technology, especially in support of community-oriented policing. The ISTEP team inter-viewed the administrator of the Office of Management, Budget and Research (OMBR), and the commander of the Support Services Division. The team also observed a meeting of the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee (CJAC), which is composed of a group of representatives from the city court, city prosecutor’s office, Community Services, the police department, and the city’s Information Technology Division (ITD). The purpose of this group is to technologically integrate and operationally maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in Tempe. The ISTEP team also inter-viewed a crime analyst in the Crime Analysis Section. A business analyst working for the city of Tempe Information Technology Division within the police department, and the command staff were also interviewed. The command staff interview included the chief of police, four commanders (North Patrol, South Patrol, Investigations, and Support Services), and the administrator of OMBR. Ride-alongs with officers were also conducted.

The second visit to the department took place on January 12, 1999, with telephone follow-up interviews conducted on January 13, 1999. On-site interviews were conducted with a crime analyst, a business analyst, a beat sergeant assigned to the North Division, and the commander of the North Division. Additional information was collected after the site visit through telephone follow-up and meetings. The focus of this visit was to glean information on community and problem-solving policing operations, to obtain an update on IT developments, and to fill in other ISTEP-related information gaps.

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2 Police Department Background

Police Department Information Systems Technology Enhancement Project (ISTEP)

The organization of this case study document follows the overall conceptual frame-work for the ISTEP project. Accordingly, after providing background information on the police department in Section 2, particularly with respect to implementation of community policing, the case study describes current and planned information systems (Section 3), analysis methods (Section 4), and uses of information (Section 5). Section 6 summarizes our findings.

2 Police Department Background

2.1 Size, Overall Organization, Crime Levels, and Trends

The Tempe Police Department serves a city of 158,000 residents and encompasses an area of 40 square miles. There are 406 Tempe police employees: 291 sworn officers and 115 civilians. The department also uses, on average, 130 volunteers, who work an average of 10 hours each per month. The department is organized into four divisions: North Patrol, South Patrol, Investigations, and Support Services, each headed by a commander. Geographically, the department is organized into two patrol divisions, North and South. The North Division covers 16 square miles, and the South Division covers 23.8 square miles.

Tempe is a university city with an economic base of service-related and light industries that include a strong technology sector. The city is the home of the main campus of Arizona State University, one of the nation’s largest public universities. Tempe is known as a “special events” city, with major tourist attraction activities such as the annual Fiesta Bowl.

In 1997, the police department received 118,652 calls for service. The most frequent calls for service were burglary alarm calls (11%), traffic accident calls (8.5%), suspicious activity calls (7.4%), check the welfare calls (5.6%), and both theft from vehicle and loud music/noise/party calls (5.4% each). There were 15,217 Part I crimes in 1997, or 9,619 per 100,000 residents. These included 12 homicides, 72 forcible rapes, 280 robberies, 504 aggravated assaults, 2,197 burglaries, 10,223 larcenies, and 1,883 motor vehicle thefts. Part I crimes have increased slightly over the past five years, with most of the increase in the area of larcenies and modest increases in violent crimes (1997 Report on Policing in Tempe).

2.2 Community-Oriented Policing Background

The Tempe Police Department maintains an ongoing commitment to community-oriented policing (COP). The department also enjoys a reputation as a COP pioneer; but it appears that in recent years the department has been searching to find a balance between COP and the public’s demand for maintaining superior traditional police services. Maintaining this balance is tough for all departments committed to a department-wide philosophy of community policing. The Tempe department consistently reviews community priorities and performs internal assessments to help in the process.

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COP is evidenced in several ways, including COP training for new officers after they complete recruit training, a requirement for setting beat goals that entails problem solving, a strong emphasis on interface with the community through meetings, and the direct provision of information on crime and crime-related issues.

Officers are assigned to one of 15 beats and, along with their supervisors, are held responsible for them. Beat integrity is a feature of the Tempe Police Department operational practice, and officers generally work in the same beat for a year. In addition, knowledge of and commitment to COP is taken into consideration in selection, pro-motional practices, and performance reviews. Recruits and field training officers are encouraged by patrol commanders to pursue COP principles and practices. Recently, the department established a work group charged with developing a system for tracking officer time spent on community policing in an attempt to integrate COP-related efforts as a more systematic part of workload and activity measurement.

Although commitment to community-oriented policing and problem solving is not uncommon to innovative departments, such commitment varies from one division to another, from one beat to another, and between command and line staff. Some beats are described as having significant problem-solving activity, while others have less activity. Supervisors point out that the commitment to COP by line officers depends upon the individual. The difference in COP between the South and North Divisions appears, in part, to be a function of differences in the characteristics of the areas encompassed by the beats, as well as of the management styles of the commanders responsible for those divisions. Although both the South and North Divisions practice community policing, the effort is managed differently in each. The varied management styles may actually benefit the department, as staff can assess the effectiveness of each style.

Extent of Departmental Efforts in Community Policing

Solicitation of Citizen Input

The Tempe Police Department uses a variety of methods for soliciting citizen input to help with the implementation of community policing. These methods include an annual community survey, neighborhood meetings, and a policy that encourages citizens to call beat sergeants to voice concerns or obtain information. Several information products are produced by crime analysis and targeted for distribution and consumption by Tempe residents. These include results from the community survey, monthly Part I crime statistics by beat, maps to help citizens locate their residence within a beat, and various reports on crime in apartment buildings and mobile home parks. The Tempe Police Department Web page is an important means of disseminating this information. The community survey is the responsibility of the Crime Analysis Unit and is conducted annually with the assistance of student interns from Arizona State University. The survey provides the department with an indicator of citizen perceptions of police performance, as well as a measure of citizens’ feelings of safety and security. The survey also provides information used to help set priorities for service delivery.

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2.3


Geographic Focus

The department practices geographic assignments to support community policing. Patrol officers work within specific patrolling areas and remain in these areas for at least a year. Emphasis is placed on maintaining beat integrity. Tempe is organized into 15 beats, which are drawn using both natural geographic boundaries and analysis results from calls-for-service data. Each beat has a sergeant assigned to coordinate the efforts of the officers on the shift beat team. The sergeants are required to set three goals for their beat each year. Beat officers seem to be well aware of requirements for beat problem-solving projects, and officers and line supervisors appear to develop an intimate understanding of the neighborhood encompassed in their beat.

Emphasis on Prevention

The Tempe Police Department places considerable emphasis on crime prevention. Evidence of this is the department’s commitment to crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), as well as the production of newsletters and bulletins that promote crime prevention. The city has a CPTED ordinance, and the Tempe Police Department has two officers assigned to the city department tasked with reviewing building permit applications, construction plans, and site inspections. This arrangement is under review, however. It appears that the department may be forced to reassign those officers to other duties in the crime prevention unit, since these positions are not being integrated and supported by city Development Services.

The city also has a program to promote crime-free multi-housing, and the Tempe Police Department plays a significant role in supporting that effort. Crime analysis generates ongoing reports of crime in public housing that serve as a basis for the development of specific crime prevention measures. The department also publishes and distributes a 75-page Practical Guide for Landlords, Tenants, and Property Managers in an effort to decrease illegal activity and nuisance problems in multi-housing areas.

The Crime Prevention Unit offers several community-involved proactive programs to address crime and fear-of-crime issues, including the Citizens on Foot Patrol pro-gram, which involves residents observing and reporting incidents to police using cellular phones. The unit also offers residential security surveys, neighborhood watch programs, and citizen police academies to help citizens understand police work and encourage them to partner with police to prevent crime.

Problem-Solving Orientation

The practice of problem solving is well ingrained in the organizational culture of the Tempe Police Department. Beat sergeants and beat teams identify problems and develop responses. Beat sergeants call on crime analysis for assistance in identifying crime patterns and trends, and officers and supervisors receive training in problem solving. The systematic use of a problem-solving system has recently been codified in Tempe Police Department’s Problem Solving Process. Department staff now fill out community-policing project forms when a problem solving project is identified. The

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form requires them to fill in information on project type, description, objective, strategy, results, and actions taken. Also unique in the process is that exact hours spent on these projects are documented to show dedicated levels of staffing for the project. These hours can be aggregated to determine the total amount of time officers have devoted to community policing and problem solving. This process will enable Tempe to continuously assess the effectiveness of problem solving.

Adoption of Community-Oriented Policing Management Styles

Management has a strong commitment to COP, and COP principles and practices seem to be an important force in department planning and resource allocation. Management supports COP, problem-solving training, and capacity building, and the COP emphasis is reflected in the selection and promotion of managers. The department uses calls-for-service studies as a baseline pointer for their strategic planning process that drives the departmental priorities and direction. A Workload Committee is trying to develop a system to factor COP activity into resource allocation and the strategic planning process by analyzing calls-for-service loads.

Community-Oriented Policing Training and Assessment

Beat officers receive training in COP when they go through the basic police officer training course at the Phoenix Regional Police Academy. The regional academy uses an integrated approach to COP training: COP concepts are integrated throughout the basic 614-hour police officer training curriculum. Officers also receive approximately 40 hours of additional training in COP provided by the Tempe Police Department when they complete recruit training. Officers are evaluated in field training on community policing, including problem-solving activities, resource utilization, interaction with community members, and community awareness and service. Officers are also evaluated on their commitment to COP in their daily and weekly probationary and annual evaluations. Emphasis is placed on having Field Training Officers reinforce COP values and practices. In-service training opportunities on COP-related topics are also made available to beat officers.

Since most supervisors come up through the ranks, they receive much of the same COP training as beat officers receive. In addition, supervisors (both sworn and civilian) and management staff are active participants in State, regional, and national organizations and conferences that present them with important opportunities to acquire information on COP practices and trends. This includes the programs of the Arizona Community Policing Institute.

The department has a solid commitment to community-oriented policing and has implemented the philosophy for several years. The Tempe Police Department can probably be thought of as a second-generation COP department. COP appears to be ingrained in the department and is practiced as part of the way in which the department conducts business. The department’s openness with the community and willingness to share detailed information with Tempe residents is important evidence of this commitment.

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2.4

3 Information Systems


3 Information Systems

3.1 Information Technology Staffing and Responsibility

As in many police departments, Information Technology (IT) responsibility was housed, until recently, in the Information Management Bureau (IMB) organized internally under Support Services. Technology came to be located in Support Services because it was seen as an essential tool to support community policing by the command staff. Politically, the police department maintained considerable independence and autonomy from city government. This was the case for some time, as the city viewed the department as fully capable of managing its own affairs. The department did respond effectively to political, financial, and intellectual forces in growing its technology capabilities. IT decision makers began formal planning early on by coordinating the gradual phase-in of new IT infrastructures related to communications, records management, and CAD systems. As the cost and complexity of technology increased, however, the city took steps to centralize all IT, police included.

In May of 1998, the city reorganized IT and centralized all departmental IT units into one city Information Technology Division (ITD). This was seen as a positive move by some in the command structure, but many patrol commanders and communications staff were not so willing to hand over control of IT. Financially, it made sense for the city to coordinate IT; the city could better integrate systems and, through economies of scale, buy in bulk more efficiently. Further, the police department appeared to be stagnant on many pressing issues, including systems coordination, management, liability, and upgrading computers. As a consequence, the city-centralized IT came at an advantageous time for the Tempe Police Department.

3.2 State of Information Systems

As noted, Tempe has recently undergone a reorganization into the Information Technology Division. As of May 1998, the city reorganized its technology information assignments. As a result, the police department lost four civilian positions to the city. In most cases, this meant that a city employee (known as a business analyst) was assigned to each division of city government.

The decision by the city to absorb the four police positions and the responsibility associated with them seems to have been precipitated by a request from the police department to replace their laptops at a cost of more than $5,000 per machine. The absorption of these positions by the city is generally seen in positive terms by the department. This positive perception is linked to the view that the police will fare well in almost any decision-making process, that the city will absorb a large chunk of the risks involved in decision making, and that the city has deeper pockets than the police department.

This reorganization was done as a consequence of a needs assessment conducted by the city. The bias in the planning process was toward integrating IT across city departments. Over the past two years the city has standardized the Oracle database for all

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mid- to large-size databases. These databases are managed by the centralized Data Management section of ITD. Now, all remote sites can access all database servers.

The police department suspects that future IT improvement projects and recommendations will receive more support, since these recommendations will come from the city and will not be seen as self-serving. The reorganization meant that the Criminal Justice Automation Committee and the Criminal Justice Operations Committee were merged. In addition, the police department is optimistic about the changes because many needs that were left unmet will be addressed. Historically, the police department thought that certain needs were to be met by the city, and the city assumed that the police department was to meet those needs. In reality, neither group met the needs of the other. Overall, the Tempe Police Department command staff views relocating the IT function into the city as a compromise between fiscal needs and control.

Another obvious advantage of centralizing IT responsibility is that city IT employees are more capable of handling IT decisions than police employees. They are more knowledgeable on various IT systems and platforms and hardware and software upgrades. The department also saves the costs of training sworn staff on IT systems and software.

The Tempe Police Department’s involvement in technology early on appears to be the result of leadership and financial resources. Fifteen to eighteen years ago, commanders and lieutenants led the charge for greater use of technology. Tempe is a relatively affluent city with significant fiscal resources and was in a position to add technology. In addition, the presence of Arizona State University in Tempe has meant that expertise has been readily available to the city in areas such as crime analysis and computer engineering. To date, Arizona State has provided interns and assisted with annual surveys.

Although commanders and the Tempe Police Department chief indicated that a commitment to community-oriented policing helped the city get more involved in technology, it is difficult to directly link IT to COP. It appears that the primary means by which the Tempe Police Department’s commitment to COP has been put into action in Tempe is through neighborhood policing. The most obvious link of IT and COP seems to be through crime analysis, with data being analyzed, reported on, and mapped at the level of the beat or sub-units (reporting districts) within beats.

Information Systems Related to Professional-Era Policing

Operations/Command and Control Systems

The department’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system was originally acquired in 1982. The CAD architecture consists of one centralized minicomputer talking to mobile data terminals (MDTs). The system uses Public Safety Systems Incorporated (PSSI) designed and supported software. The records management system (RMS) is

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3.3


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about 12 years old. Both the RMS and the CAD have been updated regularly. The department uses ALERT as its primary RMS and a response CAD system; both are produced by PSSI and, therefore, communicate well with each other. ALERT has a calls-for-service module that is synchronized daily. ALERT users can access CAD data as little as 24 hours old. A major short-term goal is to have a stand-alone RMS that will be year 2000 (Y2K) compliant.

Motorola MDTs are in the process of being replaced. All cruisers are being fitted with dockable Panasonic laptops that will communicate and transmit data using radio frequency (RF) technology. Beta testing of these units is complete, and department-wide installation was scheduled for completion in January 1999. Installation was delayed due to problems in securing mounting hardware for the units. For several years, officers and cruisers have been issued laptops with limited applications, such as field reporting. The new Panasonics will combine MDT functions with a yet-to-be-developed automated field reporting (AFR) system. This system should be developed and in place sometime in the year 2000.

Management Information Systems

Management information systems (MIS) in the department encompass elements from the department’s entire menu of IT operational applications and specialized applications related to personnel management and budget. One specialized MIS application used heavily by the Tempe Police Department is Staff Wizard. This resources-allocation application uses a variety of data – including calls for service, average response time for calls with varying priorities, and miles patrolled to provide an approximate “best schedule” for officers. The software is instrumental in shaping decisions about officer deployment. The Staff Wizard program is an information tool operated by the Crime Analysis Unit and patrol management. The information produced is given to commanders who then have sergeants and lieutenants review drafts of schedules and provide command staff with feedback.

3.4 Information Systems Related to Community-Oriented Policing

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

The GIS software standard for the city is MapInfo. GIS technology in the police department is managed by the Crime Analysis Unit. This unit uses MapInfo to prepare a variety of maps and reports that are used throughout the police organization; the primary customers of GIS/crime analysis applications, however, are seen as beat sergeants, line officers, and detectives. GIS applications are limited to the use of crime and calls-for-service (CFS) data. Unfortunately, there do not appear to be any near-term plans to provide beat officers direct access to GIS-based information via the new Panasonic laptops.

Crime analysis also produces a number of maps that can be accessed by citizens on the Tempe Police Department website. These include monthly Part I crime hot spot maps and beat maps. Maps are based on reporting districts, and specific address information is not available to citizens, although they are able to determine the reporting district location of their own address.


Problem-Solving Information Systems

At this time the department has no information systems or software dedicated to problem solving, although such a system is being developed. The 1998 Tempe Police Department Workload and Activity Measurement System Strategic Plan notes that there is not a consistent method for tracking the problem-solving activities of officers or the amount of time spent on such activities. The impetus for the development of such a method seems to be officer concerns about “checking-off” and being out of service on COP/POP activity and, as a result, missing opportunities to respond to basic calls for service. There is concern that the COP emphasis may have resulted in a reduction of traditional police services. In an effort to catch up, the department hired an intern to develop a method for documenting problem-solving projects that inventories the problems addressed and methods employed.

A related goal is the development of a CAD-based system for documenting officer time spent on problem solving that permits automated level-of-effort data aggregation and summarization. The goal is to be able to quantify such activity in order to incorporate it into performance reviews and strategic management decisions related to department resource allocation. The department evaluates officer performance on both traditional (e.g., CFS-based arrests) and COP activities. Under the “Additional Work Group/Team Support Activities” section of the Performance Evaluation Form, officers are evaluated on team project participation, proactive problem solving, and beat ownership.

3.5 Relationships and Experience with Vendors

The department interacts with software and hardware vendors on an as-needed basis. There does not appear to be a regular set of meetings or ongoing communication, even with vendors that the department has a relationship with. Overall, vendors have played a minor role in determining departmental needs, even though the Tempe Police Department relies on vendors for beta testing all new systems. Since it has been some time since a complete new system (RMS, CAD) has been purchased, there is little information in the way of recent precedent to guide the department.

3.6 Future Acquisition and Development Plans

Although the CAD and RMS are dated, they have been improved regularly and there is no plan to replace them. The view is that they are an acceptable platform for IT that can be upgraded over time when funding is available. The police department and ITD are in the process of upgrading the RMS from a host-based system to a client-server system. The department stressed that this will increase the ability to query data for analysis.

“Ruggedized” Panasonic computers have been purchased to replace Motorola MDTs. The new MCTs/laptops are capable of displaying calls for service and canned or prepackaged information from Crime Analysis, including mug shots and police reports. Another major technology effort at the current time is the document-imaging project being conducted in the Records Bureau. This project is of considerable inter-

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4 Analysis Methods Used


est throughout the department. The project calls for scanning the document number and crime report as an attached file and feeding the scanned data into the department’s Oracle database.

Much of the IT development effort is devoted to updating old DOS-based applications that are no longer supported and bringing them into the Windows environment. The replacement of field reporting software is also a priority, and a major component of this effort will be expanded field reporting capabilities, including vehicle/accident reporting. Automating field interrogation files and improving the GIS capabilities of the dispatch system are two additional IT development goals. It should be noted that Tempe is in the process of implementing a three-year strategic plan known as the “Management Services Information Technology Strategy Plan 1998-2001.”

3.7 IT Training

Training for technology applications is fulfilled by a semi-formal train the trainer approach. For example, a small cadre of 10-12 interested officers volunteered to be trained to use the new Panasonic laptops, and these officers will provide the department with the capacity to train additional officers as the new technology comes on line. Traditional technology training (e.g., MDTs) is carried out as part of the on-the-job/field-training-officer (FTO) training process. The Arizona Police Officer Standards and Training Board (POST) academy also now includes computer training. Crime analysis training for officers is provided either during a 3-week post-academy training or during their 14-week field training.

4 Analysis Methods Used

4.1 Professional-Era Analysis Methods

Crime Analysis

The Crime Analysis Unit performs tactical, strategic, and administrative crime analysis. The Tempe Police Department is divided into two command areas, North and South. Each command area has one crime analyst assigned to it. Part-time analysis assistants and Arizona State University student interns make up the rest of the unit’s staff. The physical location of the crime analyst within each patrol division has important implications for the demand, flow, and use of crime analysis information. The North Command Area is in the same facility as police headquarters. The crime analysis office is located near the general public reception area, an area that receives less traffic from patrol officers and their supervisors than does the South office. The principal clientele for the crime analyst located in that office includes administration, detectives, and citizens. The crime analyst for the South Command Area is located next to the patrol assembly area, and placement in that location generates considerable interaction with patrol officers and their sergeants. Queries from officers and beat sergeants constitute the principal source of requests for information directed to the South Command Area crime analyst.

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The major information products produced by the Crime Analysis Unit are monthly crime, calls for service, alarm, and accident reports; ongoing series of tactical crime trend reports; and monthly and annual reports on crime and calls for service in schools, apartment communities, and mobile home communities. In addition, the unit conducts an annual citizen survey and prepares a report summarizing the survey findings. The unit also prepares custom reports in response to requests from all depart-mental units, other units in city government, and community agencies. The Crime Analysis Unit has a well-developed Web page and regularly posts most of the information listed above.

Operations Analysis

One important form of operations analysis is the use of calls-for-service data to develop beat-officer staffing schedules. Staff Wizard, developed by Corona Solutions, is the software application used for this purpose. It uses CFS data and other operations and administrative data to generate draft schedules that are reviewed by supervisors, who then make recommendations for schedule adjustments to the department command staff. Tempe was a test site for Staff Wizard. Corona Systems worked with the department to test, modify, and refine the software.

Intelligence Analysis

Intelligence analysis is largely the responsibility of specialized operational units (e.g., drugs, gangs). The Tempe Police Department is an active participant in various metro task forces and accesses intelligence maintained by those task forces. The Arizona Department of Public Safety maintains several extensive intelligence databases that are shared with police agencies throughout the metropolitan area.

Community-Oriented Policing Analysis Methods

Community Analysis

The Tempe Police Department has access to a variety of citywide criminal justice and non-criminal justice databases. The non-criminal justice databases include census information, commercial permits and licenses, traffic engineering, and housing data. One goal is for city IT to develop a data warehouse populated by these and other city databases. At the present time, the use of non-criminal justice databases is somewhat limited, although crime analysis uses them to prepare reports that overlay crime data on various data sets. Examples include reports on crime in mobile home parks, apartment communities, parking lot locations, parks, and schools.

Problem Analysis

The approach to problem analysis at the Tempe Police Department was previously ad hoc. However, as mentioned earlier in the document, the department is using a newly created Problem Solving Process form and tracking system that requires staff to fill in

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4.2

5 Use of Information


information, once a problem is identified, on project type, description, objective, strategy, results, and actions taken. This formalization of problem identification and follow-through should produce more accountability in problem solving.

Prior to this process, most problem analysis was conducted by the Crime Analysis Unit at the request of beat sergeants and officers who were setting and working on beat goals. It should be noted, however, that although many of the reports prepared by crime analysis can be thought of as problem analysis, the depth of these analyses is limited by the reliance on narrowly constructed databases. The department’s Oracle database, which is the principal source of incident report data in the department, is described as difficult to manipulate. Also, problems with cleaning data in the Oracle database have been reported. Both of these factors make its direct use by officers and sergeants nearly impossible.

5 Use of Information

The ISTEP conceptual framework identifies seven information domains that are critical to the successful implementation of community policing. The seven domains are community interface, inter-organizational linkages, work-group facilitation, environmental scanning, problem orientation, area accountability, and strategic management. In each of these domains, information technology can, if properly applied, greatly enhance the effectiveness of community policing.

Each of the five police departments that ISTEP staff have visited excels in one or more of the seven domains. The following discussion details Tempe’s participation in the seven information domains.

5.1 Community Interface

The Tempe Police Department maintains a strong interface with the community, and the strength of that interface is probably a function of the community and department’s history. Tempe has maintained the police-community relationship that existed when both were much smaller entities.

The Tempe Police Department maintains an elaborate website that provides a large amount of information to the community. Included are pin-maps of crime trends, thematic maps of beats and reporting districts by crime and calls for service, and beat maps that indicate the streets and numbers of the reporting districts. Even the addresses, names, and photographs of registered sex offenders can be accessed. The Web page takes on added significance in a community such as Tempe, which is a major university town with a significant IT base. On a per capita basis, Tempe citizens probably have greater Internet and World Wide Web access and skills than those found in other communities of similar size. It follows that emphasizing the use of the World Wide Web to promote community interface makes a great deal of sense in a community like Tempe.

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The department has increased the use of cell phones, e-mail, and voice messaging in recent years. Beat sergeants and officers are expected to respond directly and promptly to inquiries by citizens. Officers are expected to give out cards that contain telephone contact information. Crime analysis will respond directly to citizen requests, although a small fee is charged for analysis and production of custom reports. Community meetings, newsletters, and extensive involvement of police managers and command staff in civic organizations are some of the low-tech approaches to community interface in Tempe. The department also coordinates Citizens on Foot Patrol, which involves residents observing and reporting incidents to police using cellular phones.

Additional interfaces include the department’s use of cable channel 11, neighborhood block watch and association meetings, an annual neighborhood problem-solving meeting, and a Youth Police Academy.

Inter-Organizational Linkages

The recent centralization of IT into one city department is probably strengthening the Tempe Police Department linkages with other organizational units of the city. Two of the perceived benefits of the arrangement are better access to the financial resources of Tempe’s Information Technology Improvement Program (TIP) and increased capacity for successfully implementing major technology projects. Linkages with the Development Office result from the city’s CPTED ordinance and the assignment of officers to that office to conduct CPTED reviews. Similar linkages exist with the housing office in conjunction with the public housing program. The department has a Crime-Free Multi-Housing Coordinator who works with managers and residents from apartment communities to make them safer and uses CFS, crime, and other data to problem solve. The ITD business analyst assigned to the police department also serves as an important avenue for information exchange between the Tempe Police Department and other city agencies represented in the IT department.

The Criminal Justice System Integration Committee provides another set of important inter-organizational linkages. The committee is composed of the following members: the Deputy Court Administrator, the business analyst for the Court and Prosecutor, another representative of the city courts program, a data manager for ITD, the business analyst for the Tempe Police Department, the Civil Court budget manager, the jail automation manager, the Supervisor of Diversion Services (probation), the Manager of Police Records, and the Tempe Police Department’s Commander of Support Services, who serves as committee chair. The goal of this committee is to produce a single point of entry (and exit) for criminal justice data, and to integrate operations. The new committee structure is a direct consequence of the 1998 decision to move the Tempe Police Department’s IT into the city ITD.

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5.2


5.3 Work-Group Facilitation

The department has provided all supervisors with team and facilitation/meeting skills training. The department has cross-functional teams, including a policy team, management team, and specific committees addressing various issues. However, cross-shift and cross-unit coordination is largely a function of informal contacts and arrangements initiated by the beat sergeant. This seems most evident in communications and facilitation between patrol shifts. E-mail capabilities, as well as shared reports, including those produced by the Crime Analysis Unit, provide a basis for some cross-shift, cross-unit communication and information sharing.

Regularly scheduled command staff meetings can cover a range of topics, including substantive problems in the community. The focus on community problems, when it occurs, can lead to coordination across units, shifts, and city agencies as the command staff attempts to impact these problems.

5.4 Environmental Scanning

Systematic environmental scanning is improving. The Tempe Police Department is in the beginning stages of developing a systematic approach to environmental scanning. The new Workload Committee is using a variety of department and city databases to make mid-range projections of demand for services and workload impacts. That effort appears likely to evolve into a formal, ongoing strategic planning process with scanning as an essential part of the process.

The reports on crime trends prepared by crime analysis represent a form of scanning, albeit somewhat informal. Although crime analysis develops a large quantity of useful information, it does not appear to be used for systematic scanning by management. The department’s coordinated efforts with city agencies, such as traffic engineering and planning and development, also involve it in limited scanning processes.

5.5 Problem Orientation

The problem orientation of the department has been somewhat informal, although the department has improved the process and is clearly committed to community-oriented policing, with problem solving being an important COP strategy. The training of new officers and supervisors in COP/POP reflects this commitment, as do promotion and selection processes. The requirement for beat sergeants to set three annual beat goals also reflects the department’s problem orientation.

Crime analysis data, which are largely CAD-generated data, are the principal source of information used to inform SARA-like problem solving (scanning, analysis, response, and assessment) in the department. These data must be accessed through the Crime Analysis Unit, and that unit indicates that sergeants setting beat goals are among their most frequent customers. Crime analysis will produce custom reports and maps and limited analyses on request. POP/COP activity is documented in the

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daily activity reports, logs of beat officers, and in the recently developed problem-solving forms.

Some officers seem to lack an understanding that problem solving is frequently a long-term process, and community-oriented policing is viewed more as a program than a philosophy. Consequently, these officers tend to see COP in discrete terms with a beginning and an end.

5.6 Area Accountability

Although area accountability is accomplished through the organization of the department’s two major geographic divisions into 15 beats, the beats were not created using specific neighborhood boundaries. They are broken down into reporting districts, however, for more effective analysis. The patrol officers are assigned to a beat, and the department uses a beat team concept. Assignment to a beat is usually for one year. A sergeant is assigned to a beat for two years, with responsibility for coordinating the work activity of the beat team. Most of the 15 beats have a satellite office, usually colocated in and donated by a business, school, or other city department. Sergeants are responsible for setting problem-solving goals, and problem solving is taken into account when annual performance reviews are conducted. GIS applications support the beat and reporting-district boundary delineation and activity data within those areas.

5.7 Strategic Management

Management appears to be concerned about developing a balance between community policing and traditional police service. There is a perception by some in the community that too many resources allocated to COP may have resulted in a reduction in traditional services, such as responding immediately to all calls for service. Management describes COP as an ongoing challenge for the department – the goal being to provide traditional police services while still doing POP and COP through participation with the community, in an appropriate balance.

The establishment of the Workload Committee is a result of this concern for balance, and one of the committee’s objectives is to develop an approach for workload allocation that reflects an agreed upon balance of traditional and COP police activity. For example, under the present system, an officer doing COP or POP “checks off” with dispatch and is out of service (red light) and unavailable to respond to a call for service (green light). The committee is looking at the possibility of creating a conditional status (amber light), so that an officer could be performing COP/POP activities but still be available to respond to calls. The concern about balance is also reflected in the development of the POP activity tracking system. The focus of that new system is to capture officer time spent on COP/POP so that it can be quantified and part of an over-all officer deployment and resource allocation system.

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6 Summary


5.8 Other Uses

Use by Officers, Detectives, Management

Increased use of IT by officers, detectives, and management will most certainly occur in the near future. The new laptops that will soon be in place will provide increased access to information by officers. Officers are allowed to take home the personal computers assigned to them. A new AFR system will provide an improved source of incident-level data. Aggregate data and future developments in the computerization of field interview files will be important information resources for officers and detectives alike. The POP activity tracking system will also be used by management in support of planning and budgeting.

Use by Others

Citizens and other city agencies are likely to increase their use of Tempe Police Department police-related data in the future. The creation of a Tempe data warehouse will provide some direct access to data by other city agencies. Increased integration of criminal justice system data will provide non-police criminal justice agencies with greater access to police data and will provide the police with greater access to other types of data. Increased awareness of the police-related data presently available to citizens on the department’s website will probably result in a demand for more information and in the use of that data to support citizen-driven strategic initiatives.

6 Summary

6.1 Overall Assessment of Information Technology

Information technology that supports community-oriented policing is improving in the Tempe Police Department. IT development seems to be incremental, but senior staff have been aggressive in upgrading the CAD and RMS systems to improve the ability to perform ongoing analysis and problem solving. The current effort replacing the Motorola MDTs with new, “ruggedized” Panasonic MCTs and AFR is another gain. A new document imaging system will improve incident report storage. Planned improvements not specifically related to community policing include an automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) and a digital mug shot system.

The Tempe Police Department implemented community policing and problem solving in 1988. COP/POP seems to be part of the department’s philosophical and operational fabric, and the department can be described as being well beyond the “banner waving” stage of community-oriented policing. In some ways, the Tempe Police Department seems to be at a critical stage in that it is reassessing the emphasis placed on COP versus traditional police services. Perhaps this means that it has yet to find a way to fully integrate the two, if such integration is really possible.

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6.2 Tempe Police Department’s Best Practices

The Tempe Police Department’s Web page, especially the crime analysis section and the variety of information provided, is a best practice supporting community interface. Citizens are able to locate their address within a beat and get current crime information for that beat. The various reports (notably those related to mobile home parks, apartment communities, and schools) produced by the Crime Analysis Unit are also best practices related to community interface.

The Tempe Police Department Crime Analysis Unit is a good example of how crime analysis can use CFS data and make it useful to beat officers. The unit conducts tactical analyses that identify crime trends in relatively small geographic areas. Trends are considered the beginning of crime hot spots. In addition to statistical information, the trend reports provide information on suspects and crime characteristics. Over 80 such trends were identified and disseminated by the Crime Analysis Unit in 1998. This appears to be a good way of translating basic police data into operational tactics and strategies. Interestingly, the software used in tactical analysis, Automated Tactical Analysis of Crime (ATAC), was developed by a former department crime analyst who is now a Tempe police officer.

The use of the Corona Solutions Staff Wizard for operational and administrative management is also a best practice. Studies that show time spent on calls for service and develop a real picture of how officer time is spent are important to management. The department is also looking at expanding the scope of this analysis in the near future.

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information systems technology enhancement project · pdf file · 2011-10-28case...

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